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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- You may be overpaying for YouTube Premium via Apple billing.
- Check your billing source to confirm your subscription price.
- Cancel and resubscribe on desktop to save on monthly costs.
Recently, I took a hard look at my subscriptions after realizing I was spending about $350 a month across more than a dozen services. By canceling some, switching to ad-supported tiers, and finding bundle deals, I’ve whittled that down to around $150. But during the process, I noticed one eye-poppingly expensive subscription on my monthly statements: YouTube Premium.
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I had the Family plan and was paying $29.99 a month. I thought it cost less than that, so I looked it up, and sure enough, the standard price is $22.99 a month. So why was I overpaying? Long story short, at some point, I somehow ended up subscribed through Apple instead of directly through Google. That difference is about a 30% markup to cover Apple’s in-app purchase fees.
I genuinely didn’t know when I switched or how I missed the price difference, but it’s clearly an easy mistake to make. In the interest of service journalism, here’s how to check if you’re doing the same.
Are you overpaying for YouTube Premium?
Let’s start by confirming both your price and who bills you. If you’re part of a Google Family group and aren’t the manager, you can’t rely on your own Apple subscriptions to check the price of your YouTube Premium plan.
Instead, open the YouTube app on your phone and go to Profile > Settings > Purchases and memberships. Under your active memberships, you should see billing details. If it shows $29.99, you’re being billed through Apple.
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If you’re checking on a desktop, go to www.youtube.com/paid_memberships, find Memberships, and open the Manage Membership dropdown. Here, you should see your plan price and whether it says “billed through Apple.”
I clicked to edit my Family sharing settings, and that’s when I saw my Google Family group, set up by my husband, manages the subscription. He likely signed up through Apple on his phone without noticing the price, and neither of us caught the higher charge.
How to cancel if billed through Apple
Now that you’ve confirmed you’re being billed through Apple, go ahead and cancel that subscription to save money.
Grab the iPhone or iPad belonging to your Google Family manager, open Settings, tap their name, then go to Subscriptions. Select YouTube Premium, then tap cancel. The plan will remain active until the end of the billing cycle.
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This isn’t complicated, but clearly, it’s an easy oversight. If you subscribed through Apple at any point, you’re paying more than you need to and should fix that ASAP. Checking takes about a minute, and in my case, it would’ve saved me money months earlier.
How to resubscribe at the lower price
Once your subscription expires, you can resubscribe to YouTube Premium Family for $22.99. You’ll need to sign up directly through YouTube using a browser, not the iOS app, and make sure you’re signed in to the Google account for your Google Family manager.
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Go to www.youtube.com/premium/family on your desktop, and click Get Family Plan. A pop-up will confirm your family is already set up. Click Continue. You’ll see a purchase screen showing the monthly price. Confirm your details and start the membership.
A cheaper option
If you’re trying to cut your subscriptions like I am, it’s worth asking whether you need YouTube Premium, especially the Family plan. If you’re the only one regularly using YouTube, the $13.99 Individual plan might be enough.
Also: YouTube Premium vs. YouTube Premium Lite
If you want to save further, consider YouTube Premium Lite for $7.99 a month. Unfortunately, it’s not compatible with a Google Family group, but it’s cheaper than the Individual plan and removes ads from most videos. You still get background play and downloads on most videos, too.
The only real downside is that it doesn’t include YouTube Music. But if you already use Apple Music or Spotify, that won’t matter.
